My first Deuce build

[Tom - this was posted in 2011 but I feel there are some great tech tips on Centerline's build. It's a very nice hot rod]

I try to be a 100% builder which means I generally take a bit of time to complete projects. My first a pro-street 41 Chevy took 7 years. Next, a 53 AD pickup took three years. My deuce so far has taken 3 years this month... BUT it should be on the road in time for the reunion this September.

The only work on this build I haven't done or wont be doing myself is upholster the seat, engine machine work, and I'll have a local glass shop cut the glass. Many thanks to Deuce Roadster for his advice and council on this build. Couldn't have done it without tapping his vast knowledge of Henry's '32.

A complete photo and narrative on this build can be seen on my web site http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com if you would like more detail on anything you see in this thread.

Just an update. The fiberglass headliner is now finished and installed. It was texture painted with.... get this, Duplicolor Truck Bed Coating. Took an idea from Project 33 and it worked perfectly and only cost about $25 in materials. Beat the daylights out of what it would have cost to cover it in vinyl, especially given the complex curves involved.

Added some raised flames just for fun.

Here's the texture this spray bomb coating lays down. It's also paintable. If you need to change the color just spray it with Vinyl color spray.

I will probably be doing some other interior trim panels using this method as well.

Centerline

"Instructions are just the manufacturers opinion of how it should go together." - Tim "

Tom asked me to explain how I modified my front brakes so here is how I did it.

Disclaimer..... This is NOT the only way to do this (F-1 brakes are easier) and these have not been road tested as the car is still under construction.... but her is how I did it. What follows is pretty much word for word from my web site.

Modern Drum Front Brakes for your Deuce

When deciding on a theme for my project I thought long and hard about whether to compromise the theme with disk brakes. Since the period this car is supposed to represent is early to mid 1960's it would be very unlikely that a home built rod would have disks. That said I certainly did not want to compromise safety too much so as a result I opted for modern self energizing drum brakes.

There are a few different ways to install self energizing drum brakes on an early Ford such as the popular Lincoln brake option or those from a'51-'54 Ford pickup. These are great options but I wanted something where parts would be readily available and cheap. For me it was easier to adapt my 39-48 Ford backing plates to accept early '70s GM heavy duty station wagon/police 12"x2" drum brake hardware. This is not as difficult as one might expect. All the parts are readily available through Napa and other auto parts stores and the stock early Ford drums will easily work with this setup. The result is safe large self-energizing drum brakes for the front of your deuce.

Before modifying the backing plates I needed to "rob" some parts from a pair of junk GM backing plates. Here is a set of early 60s Impala backing plates I used to obtain the section that mounts the anchor pin and wheel cylinder. You can see those sections are mysteriously missing from this picture.

Here are the sections that were cut out of the GM backing plates. They will be grafted to the Ford plates and will save me from having to fabricate these important mounts. They will also make aligning things much easier.

This picture shows the stock Ford backing plate with the areas that will be modified marked. The top section will be removed to make room for the GM mounts I removed earlier and the bottom section will be removed and a flat plate welded in place to make room for the adjusters. The rest of the marked areas will be removed and the holes welded up just for the sake of neatness.

This picture shows the finished Ford backing plate with all the required mods finished. The stock Ford brake riding adjusters and hold down clamps were removed and the holes welded up. I also added a 5/8" piece of round stock on each side as a support for the GM anchor pins, which are as it turns out 5/8" longer than needed. Funny how that happened.

Here is a shot of the inside of the same backing plate. It's not quite as pretty but functional non the less. No one will see this side anyway.

I have to be honest here. There were some very minor modifications made to the stock GM brake shoes. Because I used the anchor and wheel cylinder mounts from an 11" GM backing plate it through the alignment of the wheel cylinders and shoes out slightly. Rather than have the little pins at an angle I relocated the recess in the shoe up slightly in order to align things. I also needed to relieve the thickness where the push pins slide onto the shoes as well as the adjusters. This would not have been necessary if I had used parts made for the station wagon brakes. Since I do a lot of junk yard diving for parts I sometimes have to make slight modifications in order to make things work. This was a minor tweak but I thought I would mention it just in case someone else uses junkyard parts.

Here is a picture of the completed brake assembly. You can see the areas of the brake shoes that were tweaked because they're shiny. Notice that these brakes have primary and secondary shoes with different size friction material. The small brake shoe (primary) always goes to the front of the vehicle

One other thing. As you can tell I did not include self-adjusters with these brakes. This is an option and if you have access to the correct parts go for it. Since none of my local wrecking yards had any early 70s GM station wagons I just decided not to mess with them. This simplifies the installation and is no big deal since adjusting the brakes when needed will only take about 5 minutes anyway.

Here is the back side with everything installed. This makes for a pretty clean installation.

. One other thing I need to mention. This modification will require a small section at the top of the spindle to be ground down to clear the GM wheel cylinder mounting area. The same type of grinding is necessary when installing the early Ford F-100 brakes as well so it really is no big deal.

You can see this area in the picture below. I also need to mention that you must use GM wheel cylinders that have the brake line attachment point on the side and NOT the bottom since the bottom attachment point will interfere with the spindle and the brake line will not fit correctly.

Once all the parts were fitted the plates were disassembled and I had them powder coated. Then they were reassembled and installed on the spindles.

Once reassembled and mounted it was time to have the original drums turned. The drums were designed to be mounted to the hubs by press fitting the lugs through both the hub and drum. This will lock the drum in position so it can't be removed from the hub without disassembly and the use of a shop press. This "stock" system just won't do for a modern set of brakes so I drilled out the lug holes in the drums slightly so they could fit over the lugs without being a press fit. This allows them to be easily removed should the brakes require servicing.

The hubs were mounted with new bearings and a new set of lugs pressed fitted. This completes the majority of the brake work. The rear drums are stock Ford 9" so there will be no surprises there.

So here you have a complete set of self energizing GM brakes for your stock 37-48 Ford backing plates.

One day's work, approximately $50 in parts and there you go.

Centerline

"Instructions are just the manufacturers opinion of how it should go together." - Tim "

Some of us aren't lucky enough to own a gene deuce. After all, If all of us who wanted a real steel deuce actually bought one, there wouldn't be enough left to go around. Especially for those of you hoarders who have three or four of them. Anyway, I'm trying to make my glass car look as authentic as possible, given its an inexpensive body built by a manufacturer who pretty much went out of business 10 years ago. So, I spent a lot of time creating a much more realistic firewall...

Now I needed an option for a realistic windshield frame. This body was designed to have the windshield installed using 60's style rubber molding. That's OK if you don't mind the look, but its not my style. Besides a car built back in the early 60's wouldn't have mounted the windshield that way. Of course a repo frame would be an option but with this body it would require much more corrective surgery than I'm really wanting to do at this point. Another option would be to glue in the windshield and then purchase one of the faux frame covers that are available from DJ's Street Rods. These are nice and I'm told they fit well but they're a little over the top and do have kind of a "fake" look to them. Plus they're a bit pricy for my pocket book, as are repro frames. So, my solution was to make my own faux windshield frame that will glue to the windshield and actually look like it belongs on a deuce.... and I did it for under $20.

Once the windshield was glued in a pattern of the opening was made from Luann plywood.

Then that shape was transferred to some 18 ga. steel I had laying around. The shape was then cut out with a cutoff wheel. I made the frame 7/8" wide. I know that is a little less than stock but with a chopped windshield I feel it will give a better ascetic appearance.

I then used body filler to build up the proper contour.

Looks pretty realistic to me and only took about 4 hours work. Cost.... nothing but my time.

Before......

After.

Centerline

"Instructions are just the manufacturers opinion of how it should go together." - Tim "

After a LOT of preparation and building a temporary paint booth in the garage, I managed to get the 3 window painted before the temps drop below the limits of my reducer. Just need to cut and buff now along with finish some interior work and then it will be ready to work the bugs out. Will be at next year's reunion for sure.

Centerline

"Instructions are just the manufacturers opinion of how it should go together." - Tim "

I have trim rings and hubcaps but because I'm going to have to change the front brake cylinders (they have too small a bore for the MC) I haven't installed them yet. Will also be swapping out the Roadster headers for a set of Lakester headers this winter.

Thanks for all the comments guys. Here's a pic after some of the accessories have been installed.

Centerline

"Instructions are just the manufacturers opinion of how it should go together." - Tim "

Three years and 10 months and it's done. Finished the last of the interior details today and anything I do to this car from now on will either be an upgrade or modification. I do have a couple ideas but it will be a while before I get to them. Have a house and garage to build first.

Completed interior panels

Seat belts

Shifter and e-brake boots

Done

Centerline

"Instructions are just the manufacturers opinion of how it should go together." - Tim "